This is the 49th of a series of bulletins produced by ISE to update members on key data and policy related to Covid-19. This bulletin covers the period 11th March – 17th March 2021.

You can access all of the Covid-19 bulletins on ISE insights.

Latest Covid-19 data

Data taken from Wikipedia and from the government’s Covid-19 dashboard.

The UK has now had over 4.3 million identified Covid-19 cases and 146,000 deaths (with Covid on the death certificate). The R rate is estimated to be between 0.6 and 0.8 with the daily infection rate shrinking by between 4% and 7%.

The number of cases and the number of deaths have been falling for nine weeks. The number of new cases is now well below the October average although it is still considerably higher than it was at the end of the summer. The number of deaths has also been dropping for six weeks and is now below the November level.

Covid news

Data from the government’s Covid-19 dashboard.

• The vaccine rollout has been going well, but there are concerns about who is not taking up the opportunity to be vaccinated.
• We have now been in some form of lockdown for a full year.
• What is the next year going to hold? Michael Tool and Suman Mujumdar offer their thoughts on the next year of the pandemic.

Education

• The National Audit Office has released a paper setting out some of the mistakes that were made in school closures during the pandemic.
• Research commissioned by Redrow homes shows that the popularity of university as a post-18 option may be falling.
• University management is hoping for a full return to campus after Easter, but unions remain unconvinced.

The economy

• The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released new data on the economic and social impacts of the pandemic. This includes data showing that GDP fell by 2.9% during January.
• The Chancellor has continued to defend his decisions in the budget.

The labour market

• Young people are most likely to be hit hardest during the pandemic says new research from the Youth Futures Foundation. With ONS data on the young people not in education, employment and training backing this up.

Changing patterns of work

• A year of lockdown is taking its toll on a lot of us. Here is how to deal with a year of accumulated burnout.
• Covid has had a long-term impact on our careers. Lyndsey Pollack discusses how to recalculate your career in 2021.

Student recruitment and development

• Charlie Ball offers his predictions for the 2021 graduate labour market. While data from Milkround suggests that graduates are concerned about their prospects.
• ISE’s development survey was launched this week. Stephen Isherwood offers his take on the findings. FE News covers the launch by noting that employers are saying that graduates lack work-ready skills.
• ISE continues to discuss the changing face of student employment exploring how assessment centres have changed and whether online internships are worthwhile.